Netscape still has around forty percent of the browser market, so there should be a readership for the second edition of this 'official' guide. It starts with an explanation of how to configure Netscape, and how to use plug-ins and helper-applications [which must surely be destined for eventual integration with browsers].
This is followed by how to use Netscape as a mailer connecting to listservs, mailing lists, and newsgroups. There is the usual advice on netiquette and warnings about the anarchic world of the 30,000 newsgroups - including advice on how to locate newsgroups even if your own service provider doesn't carry them. the writing is breezy and cheerful - and they even manage to inject a little fun into the serious matters of data mining.
I found of particular interest the section dealing with the DEJA.NEWS archives, which store every message that's ever been posted to a newsgroup. [This is how you can easily be traced, and your interests identified.] There's a thorough description of doing searches using Boolean operators and setting up email search accounts with Reference.com.
The authors cover Gopher, Telnet, and Finger, even whilst admitting that these have now been largely superseded by the Web. And on the Web itself, they compare the methods used by various search engines to compile their searchable databases using spiders.
The centre of the book is a series of sections listing Web site resources - government, international, business, and professional, job-seeking, and student resources (dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, library indexes). There's also a good fun section which lists sites on urban myths, hoaxes, and computer virus scares.
It's chapter 22 before we get to any serious research methods (and by now, Netscape has been left far behind). They cover the MLA forms of citation, and the book ends with a brief review of procedures and sources for putting the results of your researches onto a web site.
The writing is straightforward, but occasionally lapses into over-personal chattiness, with the co-authors sharing details of their home life as a way of illustrating 'Net life'. Fortunately, this sort of thing is kept under control most of the time.
They have simple advice on how to keep up to date with information and yet avoid overload [Don't try everything. Be selective.] They've followed their own advice, there is a good index, plenty of screenshots, URLs to follow up, and on the whole an enthusiastic approach will make readers want to start searching and researching.
This last point raises an issue which has nothing to do with the book, but which is an important issue in the type of research they describe. Local phone calls are free in most of the USA [and many other countries]. This gives users an incentive to browse freely. In other places [the UK for instance] we pay dearly, some would say extortionately, for local calls. Browsing has to be limited and - if you've any sense - pre-planned. So there's an additional skill to be kept in mind for those still battling with greedy Telcos.
